Creation of a Sevens Youth Competition for boys and girls

01/07/2000 - 31/07/2000

The second part of the meeting began with a review of all XVs Rugby competitions culminating in discussions, commentaries, critiques and proposals. These were always constructive and always kept the issue of finance in mind. The main theme was the creation of a Sevens Rugby Competition for young players (boys and girls). Jean-Claude Baqué’s view was to “agree in principle to a competition for players between 16 and 18 years of age sponsored by the Société Générale. “Seven’s Rugby is a very specific discipline and therefore we need to train a maximum number of young people as quickly as possible”, he suggested. Michel Arpaillange suggested that “we should explore and reflect on this issue and come up with a proposal at the AGM in December”.

Jean-Claude Baqué warned:

“We must be aware that it can be more difficult to plan when dealing with the numerous FIRA-AER member-countries located in different climatic conditions and that this can impact on continuity from year to year.The Six Nations plan their events four years in advance whereas currently our big-ticket events are organised two years in advance. This is the maximum possible at present.”

In order to decide on what was the best approach and to make an informed choice all competitions were put up for discussion. A vote on each competition was taken at the end of the debate.A question mark was raised over the U20 Championship and the possibility of dropping it was discussed. Following this each group gave a presentation of its assessments, conclusions and constructive proposals. Belgium explained how it had increased its number of players by 15% per year (25% following the World Cup) over the past ten years.

Jean-Claude Baqué, acting as both participant and observer at the meeting, was impressed: “This is extremely encouraging. It is great to see all of these young people oozing intelligence, enthusiasm, passion and good will”.